@alowhum

How are your capacitive sensors wired to the board?

@manutremo

thanks

here with my soil, it's different. Even at very little moisture it shows 100%. Maybe I have a lot of iron in the soil.

@alowhum

I've ordered 5 capacitive sensors from Aliexpress now. I need to find a way to protect them so I can bury them into the soil in the garden at different depths.

What sketch are you using for capacitive sensors?

EDIT: I just saw your sketch posted above. I will try it out. Thanks!

@mfalkvidd , maybe you are using your resistive sensors indoors in soil consisting of 100% mold. (blomjord). I guess it works great. However I'm just curious if your sensors are also working on soil from outdoors. I guess not very well.

I've found that measuring soil moisture by the electrical resistance is not a trivial task.

If the probe is put into compact soil containing no mold, you'll typically get a high reading even at very low moisture levels. It will most likely always stay within the span of 90-100%.

However if the probe is put into pure mold, the readings will range between 0% to 100%.

My conclusion is that measuring directly in the soil is very unpredictable. A better solution might be to surround the probe with some material that adapts the ambient humidity from whatever kind of soil it's put into.

@gertsanders

Thanks! Works great! I'm so happy!!!

@robkuipers

Your code will fail compiling in Arduino 1.8.5 (mysensors 2.2.0) with the following errors:

/mnt/data/Dropbox/UTV/Arduino/SoilMoisture/SoilMoisture.ino: In function 'void before()':
/mnt/data/Dropbox/UTV/Arduino/SoilMoisture/SoilMoisture.ino:112:114: warning: extended initializer lists only available with -std=c++11 or -std=gnu++11
   sensors[0] = { SENSOR1_ROD1_DIGITAL, SENSOR1_ROD1_ANALOG, SENSOR1_ROD2_DIGITAL, SENSOR1_ROD2_ANALOG, -1, false };
                                                                                                                  ^
/mnt/data/Dropbox/UTV/Arduino/SoilMoisture/SoilMoisture.ino:112:14: warning: extended initializer lists only available with -std=c++11 or -std=gnu++11
   sensors[0] = { SENSOR1_ROD1_DIGITAL, SENSOR1_ROD1_ANALOG, SENSOR1_ROD2_DIGITAL, SENSOR1_ROD2_ANALOG, -1, false };
              ^
/mnt/data/Dropbox/UTV/Arduino/SoilMoisture/SoilMoisture.ino:116:114: warning: extended initializer lists only available with -std=c++11 or -std=gnu++11
   sensors[1] = { SENSOR2_ROD1_DIGITAL, SENSOR2_ROD1_ANALOG, SENSOR2_ROD2_DIGITAL, SENSOR2_ROD2_ANALOG, -1, false };
                                                                                                                  ^
/mnt/data/Dropbox/UTV/Arduino/SoilMoisture/SoilMoisture.ino:116:14: warning: extended initializer lists only available with -std=c++11 or -std=gnu++11
   sensors[1] = { SENSOR2_ROD1_DIGITAL, SENSOR2_ROD1_ANALOG, SENSOR2_ROD2_DIGITAL, SENSOR2_ROD2_ANALOG, -1, false };
              ^

So the following code need tobe changed to something valid

sensors[0] = { SENSOR1_ROD1_DIGITAL, SENSOR1_ROD1_ANALOG, SENSOR1_ROD2_DIGITAL, SENSOR1_ROD2_ANALOG, -1, false };

	sensors[1] = { SENSOR2_ROD1_DIGITAL, SENSOR2_ROD1_ANALOG, SENSOR2_ROD2_DIGITAL, SENSOR2_ROD2_ANALOG, -1, false };

I'm not a c++ guy so I can't tell what needs to be done. Maybe you or someone else would like to help out?

Cheers!

EDIT: After removing the file platform.txt for solving another problem (as suggested here) The problem above vanished. So strange. But it works now so...

@GertSanders

First, please forgive me for being such a NOOB when it comes to these things.

I use your atmega328p.rar found here for my atmega328p based 28 pin DIL boards.

Now I'm trying to compile in Arduino 1.8.5 (mysensors 2.2.0) I get a lot of compiler errors when #define MY_DEBUG is set.

/home/XXX/Arduino/libraries/MySensors/core/MyTransport.cpp: In function 'void stInitUpdate()':
/home/XXX/Arduino/libraries/MySensors/core/MyTransport.cpp:124:45: error: expected ')' before 'PRIu8'
    TRANSPORT_DEBUG(PSTR("TSM:INIT:STATID=%" PRIu8 "\n"),(uint8_t)MY_NODE_ID);
                                             ^
/home/XXX/Arduino/libraries/MySensors/MyConfig.h:1815:43: note: in definition of macro 'DEBUG_OUTPUT'
 #define DEBUG_OUTPUT(x,...)  hwDebugPrint(x, ##__VA_ARGS__) //!< debug
etc etc...

I understand that my boards definitions needs to be updated. Do you have a newer version of atmega328p.rar available or can you give me a hint about how to get them working?

Thanks a million times!

Cheers!

I don't have Facebook (I'm one of the few). I've spent some hours finding where to buy a "Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensor" available in Europe but I can't seem to find one. Unless I'm willing to import one from China using Postnord of course.

Cheers!

Until March 1 this year I used to buy various components with origin of China from Aliexpress and Ebay.

From March 1, all mail items with a declared value that come from outside the EU Customs Union will have
VAT applied and a fee of SEK 75 will be charged by Postnord.

I don't say that I'd like to avoid VAT but the fees make it a bit expensive actually. I will probably stop my Hobby and begin with gardening or something else.

I've heard that a delivery route using Holland or Germany can avoid the fees to be charged. I presume doing that is not illegal.

What about you guys? Where do you buy your stuff nowadays?